Danny Ambrose comes to The NCC with in-depth experience developing and managing student life programs, advising student organizations, and training emerging student leaders. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Danny attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studied psychology and discovered his passion for leadership development and civic engagement. Danny received his Masters in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from Indiana University and began his career working in Residence Life at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Danny joined the CUNY family in 2010 as Student Life Specialist for Civic Responsibility and Student Development at Borough of Manhattan Community College where he helped establish the Co-Curricular Transcript and the Safe Zone programs. When Danny isn’t working at the NCC he can be found playing volleyball, spending time with close friends or volunteering as a lifeline counselor with the Trevor Project, the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.

Kristina Baines, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, holds a PhD in Applied Anthropology from the University of South Florida, an MSc in Medical Anthropology from the University of Oxford and an MA in Social Anthropology from Florida Atlantic University. Her research looks at connections between traditional ecological practices and health in Caribbean and Latin American communities. She has both taught and designed courses, many with technological and experiential field components, for the University of Miami, Palm Beach State College, Broward College and the University of South Florida.

She is the co-founder of the website and collective, coolanthropology.com, which is committed to disseminating anthropological ideas beyond the closed circuits of academia. At Guttman, Kristina teaches Social Science courses and is faculty for Academic Technology.

Schools Attended:
PhD, University of South Florida; MSc, University of Oxford; MA
BA, Florida Atlantic University

Nicola Blake, a CUNY alumna, completed her doctorate in medieval literature at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Her research focuses on the role of narrators and narrative structure in medieval and modern literature. She specializes in dream theory and theories of memory and performance.

Nicola previously taught for more than 10 years at Rutgers and the City College of New York. She served as director of the Samuel Rudin Resource Center at City College, and she chaired and co-chaired various presidential initiatives on student success there.

Nicola has received several awards for her service and scholarship, including one for service learning from the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies. She has participated in national and local grants focused on high-impact practices to improve writing at the post-secondary level.

As Dean of Strategic Planning and a member of the Executive Committee, Dr. Cochran is involved in many of the day-to-day issues of building a new college. As a member of the College planning team since early 2009 and a Deputy to the Project Director Tracy Meade, he helped guide the process that led to approval by the CUNY Board of Trustees and the New York State Department of Education of the Application for Opening a New College and A Proposal for the Initial Programs of Study (January 2011). Since 2012 he has overseen the extensive work at the college in developing plans for assessment (both student learning outcomes and institutional effectiveness) and an accreditation site visit by NYSED that led to a vote in December 2012 by the Board of Regents accrediting the College for five years with an interim report after three years. He is the College's co-liaison of the Foundations of Excellence first year self-study, and as the Middle States Commission for Higher Education accreditation liaison officer, he is responsible for the submission of an Accreditation Readiness Report initiating the multi-year MSCHE process. Dr. Cochran is also the elected Secretary to the Guttman College Council.

Prior to his work at the College, Cochran served as the Director of Research and Evaluation for CUNY Collaborative Programs in the Office of Academic Affairs. In that capacity he helped design and oversee the conduct of quantitative and qualitative research on academic programs including College Now, the Middle Grades Initiative/GEAR UP, and CUNY Prep. He joined Collaborative Programs in 2000 as a co-director of Looking Both Ways, a professional development project for writing teachers at CUNY and New York City public schools. He earned his master’s and doctorate in English with a certificate in American Studies at the CUNY Graduate School and taught for ten years at Queens College at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Mary E. Coleman has joined the Senior Staff at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College to serve as the Interim Vice President for Administration and Finance. She is a dedicated and long-serving CUNY administrator. Most recently, she served for 17 years as the Vice President for Finance and Administration at Bronx Community College. Before working at BCC, Ms. Coleman served as the Dean of Administration and Finance at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College.

Mary was born in Ellisville, Mississippi, the youngest of four children. She was an accounting major and summa cum laude graduate of Jackson State University. Mary was also a recipient of the prestigious Louis Calder Foundation Fellowship Award and attended the Columbia Business School in New York to earn a Master of Business Administration degree.

Before she joined CUNY in 1993, Mary Coleman held positions in the corporate and non-profit sectors, as Vice President of Finance and Administration for a multi-corporate designer, manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer, as Deputy Executive Director of American Field Service Intercultural Programs, and as a senior manager in the largest minority-controlled certified public accounting and management consulting firm in the country.

Mary sits on the Executive Board of the National Council of Black American Affairs, the American Association of Community College’s Global Commission on Education, and the International YMCA Board of Managers. Mary’s professional efforts focus on education, business, banking, accounting, and finance. “Off campus,” she is an avid reader. She also loves to play tennis and enjoys all music, especially jazz.

As an Admissions Advisor, Danny represents Guttman Community College’s model to both on- and-off campus prospective students. He coordinates and implements recruitment activities such as college fairs and high school visits all throughout the city of New York. Danny also counsels students about the admissions process and opportunities that Guttman Community College has to offer. Danny also assist with the coordination and implication of Group Information Sessions and Individual Meetings, which are required steps in the admissions process.

Danny has been working in higher education for a little over two years. Previously he has worked as an Undergraduate Admissions Assistant at The College at Brockport, SUNY where he also obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Education and Mathematics. Danny is currently obtaining his Master’s Degree in Higher Education Administration at Stony Brook University.

Jason provides front-line support for all technology issues at the college. He is involved in server administration, network management and support services.

Jason has more than 10 years of experience in the IT field at CUNY Computing and Information Services (CIS). He is mostly self-taught and proficient across a range of computer systems and environments. In his previous role at CIS, Jason undertook projects including securing the private network and rolling out a help desk system for staff use. Some of his current projects include computer imaging and asset management.

Tracy Daraviras completed her doctorate in English education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She is a former teacher for the New York City Department of Education.

After earning her Ph.D, Tracy was an assistant professor for the SEEK (Search for Elevation, Education and Knowledge) Department at Brooklyn College. She taught compensatory reading and writing classes to prepare freshmen for CUNY literacy tests and critical inquiry reading classes to prepare students for the demands of academic literacy. She actively participated in the department’s annual summer institute for incoming freshmen. She was also coordinator of the SEEK Tutoring Center, where her duties included recruiting, hiring, training and scheduling tutors; overseeing students on academic probation; and working with with instructional faculty and counselors. In addition, Tracy was responsible for organizing various philanthropic and cultural extracurricular activities each year.
Much of Tracy’s work has focused on first-year college students and the variables that positively affect student retention, success and persistence. Her research interests also include urban education, writing instruction methodology and academic literacy.

Scott joined CUNY in 2011 as Guttman Community College’s Founding President. He served as professor of psychology and founding dean of University College at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. He joined the psychology faculty there after completing his Masters' and Doctorate in Social Psychology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Psychology at Indiana University at Bloomington. Scott has long been involved in designing, implementing and assessing programs for students in their first years of university study. He played a major role in various initiatives to support student achievement in Indiana, including efforts to keep students in college. He has given more than 100 presentations on serving students as they enter college, and he has written many articles and chapters on academic achievement and persistence. Scott was a task force advisor for the Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year and a board member of the American Conference of Academic Deans. He has been a resource faculty member at the Summer Quality Academy of the Institute for Higher Education Policy and for the General Education and Assessment Institute of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He served on the advisory board for the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and as a faculty member for the Learning Community Institute of the Washington Center for Undergraduate Education. The National Learning Community conference recognized him with the lifetime achievement award. He has been on accreditation teams for three regional associations, focusing on general education, assessment and programs for entering students.

Karla Smith Fuller (Ph.D. Purdue University, 2006) is an Assistant Professor of Biology and Founding Faculty at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College. She is also co-coordinator of the Liberal Arts & Sciences Program of Study. Dr. Fuller teaches courses in the Liberal Arts & Sciences program of study such as: Introduction to Biology, Human Biology and the LAS Capstone.

Research Interests:
Dr. Fuller's primary area of interest is the study of teaching pedagogues that improve learning, engagement and effectiveness in the classroom. More specifically, she is interested in implementing specific teaching strategies that foster a student-centered learning environment in science courses that increase persistence and retention of knowledge.

Recently, she has advised students in research projects associated with a reflective study on studying Immigration through the lens of student immigrants as well as a hands-on undergraduate science research experience studying the evolution of bacteria through antimicrobial resistance.

Jan is a native Philadelphian who taught middle and high school math for ten years before moving to New York City. She earned her doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis in Mathematics Education from Penn State University. Jan's dissertation explored the way in which middle school students' use of diagrams to represent and solve algebraic word problems facilitated their transition from arithmetic to algebraic thinking.

Jan teaches Quantitative Reasoning and Statistics at Guttman. She views helping students to reason and write analytically about quantitative situations as a means of empowering their academic and civic agency.

Jan's research interests include exploring the way in which students' use of digital tools to solve context-based problems may facilitate their understanding of mathematical concepts.

Terry manages the daily operations of purchasing and receiving of goods and services for The New Community College and ensures adherence to various Federal and City guidelines. She also arranges and monitors compensation and reimbursement payments related to search committees, intra-University transfer, and honoraria.

Terry has more than fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Earlier in her career, she spearheaded community outreach targeting formerly incarcerated clients on behalf of Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue Committee and coordinated, promoted and taught youth and adult literacy outside of the traditional classroom.

Prior to joining The New Community College, Terry served as the adult literacy coordinator for Imani House, Inc. and helped many adults achieve their literacy goals. She also worked for the borough president's office in the community service department, serving as a liaison between residents and government officials to address constituent concerns. As a result of her dedication to community engagement, Terry received an award for "Outstanding Community Service" from the Bushwick Economic Development Corporation in 2003.

Terry has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Globe Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in urban planning from Long Island University.

LaToya assists the president with daily activities and projects, and she serves as the primary contact person for the president’s office. She has been part of the CUNY community for the past decade as both a student and professional. She previously provided administrative support to the vice chancellor for research at CUNY Central. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hunter College and is currently taking graduate courses in business management and leadership at The CUNY School of Professional Studies.

Chet Jordan is a member of Guttman's Inaugural Faculty and a doctoral student in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. Jordan's academic background is in American literature and Urban Education.

His research interests can be found within the turbulent intersections of student narratives and higher education policy initiatives. Jordan's teaching is grounded in critical and resistance pedagogical beliefs focused on developing students into agents of social change.

Parviz Kermani received the B.S. degree from the University Of Tehran, Iran in 1969, the Master of Mathematics (M.M.) in mathematics from University of Waterloo in Canada in 1973 and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from UCLA in 1977. From 1978 to 2009 he was a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York, USA. Dr. Kermani retired from IBM Research in 2009.

While at UCLA he was a member of the ARPA network research project, which later led to the creation of the Internet. At UCLA he did research in the design and evaluation of switching and flow control techniques in computer communication. His pioneering work on a new switching techniques, the Cut-Though switching, is now used in all innovative switching and networking architectures.

His seminal paper on Cut-Through Switching originally published in 1978 in Journal Computer Networks, was the top highest referenced paper in that journal and because of its significant influence, it was republished in June 2014. In December 2014 he was recognized by CUNY for this contribution by a certificate of appreciation.

While with IBM, he has was involved in number of diverse research projects spanning from theoretical works to product developments, all in computer communication areas such as mobile computing, personal system communications, and Internet security, distributed and pervasive computing systems, Multimedia distribution and distance learning, System Management and Autonomic Computing.

He has made many contributions to number of IBM communication products for which IBM holds patents.

His last position at IBM was the project manager of the ITA (International Technology Alliance), a $100M, 10 year joint research project between UK and US, funded by the UK MoD (Ministry of Defense) and US ARL (Army Research Lab), involving scientist from 24 universities and industrial research scientist of the two countries, pulling 120 scientists together.

Dr. Kermani is a senior member of IEEE and has many publications in diverse fields of computers and communications. He has organized and chaired number of international conferences.

He was also an adjunct professor at the graduate center of Polytechnic University in Westchester, New York, where he has been teaching graduate courses in computer communication networks from 1987-2011. In 2009-2010 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where he did research and conducted courses in Green Computing and Communication Networks. In 2013 he was an adjunct professor at Manhattan College.

Dr. Kermani is currently a professor at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College of CUNY, teaching all IT courses at this college.

Robert is responsible for the implementation and support of the new college’s IT systems and network infrastructure. He is also responsible for the technology services supporting the NCC’s administrative and operational functions.

Robert is a seasoned IT professional with over 13 years of experience in various IT roles across multiple industries and sectors. Prior to joining The New Community College, Robert worked at Public Health Solutions, where he was Deputy Director of Information Systems and Telecommunications. At Public Health Solutions, Robert managed the team responsible for all IT functions within the organization. He and his team implemented an Electronic Medical Records system for Public Health Solutions’ community based woman’s health clinics throughout New York City.

Previously, Robert held various technical positions at organizations throughout New York City. He worked in web development at Global Kids, a non-profit educational organization for global learning and youth development. Robert also worked in the Corporate Human Resources Business Technology Group at Pfizer, supporting their PeopleSoft implementation.

Robert holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from Queens College and a master’s degree in management and systems from New York University.

I blew into NYC and Guttman Community College in July 2014 from Indianapolis, where I previously worked as a Humanities Librarian at Indiana University Purdue University. In my position at Guttman, I lead and manage the development of the information literacy (IL) curriculum. In addition to teaching, I offer consultation with faculty on building and creating assignments that embed important IL concepts (i.e., those related to identifying, finding, and evaluating information).

Manny Lopez is our Associate Director for Leadership and Success. He has responsibility for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive leadership program that will enhance the academic environment and support the professional endeavors of the GCC student body. He brings to GCC a decade of higher education experience in the areas of Disability Support Services, College Discovery (HEOP), and Student Life and Leadership programming. Currently, Manny is a doctoral student in the Urban Education, Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center. His research interests include: non-formal, informal, and incidental learning; teaching and learning using multimedia; success and persistence of urban commuter college student populations. Manny has earned an A.A. in Liberal Arts; B.S. in Urban Public Health and M.S. in Urban Affairs.

Joan M. Lucariello joined Guttman Community College in February 2014 as Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Before this, since 2010, she served as University Dean for Education at the City University of New York, and before that, as CUNY’s Interim University Dean for Academic Affairs. Dr. Lucariello is a Professor of Psychology and Educational Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center, where she was a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) predoctoral fellow. Thereafter, Dr. Lucariello was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Upon completion of her postdoctoral work, Dr. Lucariello joined the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research for several years. She subsequently assumed high-level policy and science administration posts. She was Senior Scientist at the American Psychological Association (APA), where she served as an expert and advocate for behavioral science to the NIH and the NSF and assisted in APA’s launch of the “Decade of Behavior.” Then at NICHD, of the NIH, she was Director of Research Programs in Cognitive, Social, and Affective Development, the largest federal grants program for developmental psychology. Before coming to CUNY, Dr. Lucariello had returned to academe and was Professor of Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College. There she headed the doctoral program and lead a curriculum redesign and an increase in doctoral student applications and stipends.

At CUNY, Dr. Lucariello has led key initiatives. She spearheaded the plan to enhance teacher-leader preparation with $3.5 million from the State Education Dept. She forged a data exchange with NYCDOE to track the job performance of over 30,000 CUNY graduates. She also formed a CUNY partnership with Math for America. She served as principal investigator, at CUNY, for one of the first randomized control studies of online learning (done by Ithaka S+R). She also led the development of a brochure and website on best teaching practices for university faculty. She headed planning for both the inaugural (2010) and 2012 CUNY Mathematics Conferences.

Dr. Lucariello has been appointed to two NYS Regents Advisory Groups (Professional Standards and Practices Board; Regents Task Force on APPR. She was a member of the CUNY-NYC Dept of Education Steering Cmt for College-Career Readiness and Success and the Steering Cmt for the P-TECH Early College High School. For the APA, she has been nationally elected (twice) to the Developmental Psychology Division Executive Committee and is the elected Chair (twice) of the Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education.

Dr. Lucariello is a nationally and internationally known scientist in the areas of cognition, learning, and education. She has authored dozens of articles and chapters. She is an editor of the book, The Development of the Mediated Mind, and co-editor of a special issue of Theory Into Practice (in prep). She was awarded a major grant from the US Dept of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES). She was a member of the APA Task Force on the Applications of Psychological Science to Teaching and Learning and developed two online modules for teachers. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

Her distinctions include visiting faculty positions at Columbia University and UCLA. She was a Fellow at Princeton University and is a Fellow of the APA, the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and Inaugural Fellow of the American Education Research Association (AERA).

Molly Vollman Makris is Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Guttman Community College, CUNY. She holds a Ph.D. from the joint program in Urban Systems with concentrations in urban educational policy and the urban environment from Rutgers University-Newark, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She has an MALS degree from the Graduate Center, CUNY and A BS in secondary education from New York University. Molly began her career as a social studies teacher in a NYC public high school and then worked for a non-profit youth development organization overseeing after school programs and a summer camp in the South Bronx and East Harlem.

Previously Molly taught in the Urban Teacher Education Program at Rutgers-Newark, at Stevens Institute of Technology, and at New York University. She is the author of the forthcoming book Public Housing and School Choice in a Gentrified City: Youth Experiences of Uneven Opportunity.

Schools Attended:
PhD, Urban Systems, Rutgers University-Newark
New Jersey Institute of Technology, and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
MALS Graduate Center, CUNY; BS New York University

Research Interests:
urban education reform, public housing, gentrification, and the privatization of public education, housing, and space

Linda Merians joined Guttman Community College as Chief of Staff in September 2013. She came to CUNY in 2012, working for The Graduate Center and the Invest in CUNY campaign. Previously, she worked at SUNY Stony Brook as Chief of Staff for President Shirley Strum Kenny. Dr. Merians earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees at the University of Maryland, and her B.A. from Manhattanville College.

An English professor by training, Dr. Merians served on the faculties of Bucknell University and La Salle University, where she taught classes in eighteenth-century British Literature, poetry, Shakespeare, composition, theory, women's studies, and South African literature. She has presented papers at many academic conferences, and published articles and book reviews on a variety of topics. Her two books reflect her interest in British literature and culture. She conceived, edited, wrote the introduction and a chapter for The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France (1996). She is also the author of Envisioning the Worst: Representations of 'Hottentots' in Early Modern England (2001). Dr. Merians serves as the Executive Secretary of the East-Central/American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and is a passionate believer in public higher education.

Nate Mickelson is Instructor of English at Guttman and a PhD candidate at The Graduate Center, CUNY. His dissertation interprets 20th-century American city poems in relation to urban planning and design theory. His article, "Writing at Transitions: Using In-Class Writing as a Learning Tool," appeared in the Journal of College Literacy and Learning.

Before joining Guttman, Nate taught writing and literature at Hunter College and Queens College. In addition to teaching, he directs Guttman's Summer Bridge program and serves as Faculty Fellow for Excellence in Teaching. From 2010 - 2012, Nate was a member of the planning team that launched the New Community College.

Joyce supports the daily the daily activities of The New Community College. Previously she worked for several years in accounts payable for the marketing and communications companies Interbrand and Futurebrand. Earlier in her career, she held several positions, from receptionist to accounting clerk, for Wilhelmina modeling agency. She has taken classes in business administration at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and plans to pursue her bachelor’s degree in business and accounting.

Andrea Morrell holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Prior to coming to The New Community College, Andrea worked as a College Writing Fellow at Kingsborough Community College where she collaborated with faculty to design and implement writing intensive courses across the disciplines. She has taught courses in anthropology and urban studies at Queens College, Lehman College, and Brooklyn College. Andrea earned her undergraduate degree in international studies from American University in Washington, DC. As a college student, Andrea was active in creating service learning opportunities for her fellow students and from these experiences she carries a strong commitment to experiential learning. Her current research focuses on prisons and urban inequality, especially on urban development in Elmira, a small city in upstate New York where there are two state prisons. Andrea’s research interests include prisons and the criminal justice system, race and racism, cities and urban inequality, labor, and the anthropology of work.

Paul D. Naish is a historian of the early American republic who teaches history and social sciences at Guttman Community College.

He hails from Cincinnati, Ohio and earned a degree in English literature from Yale. Hoping to work in the theater, he moved to New York after graduation and landed a job at Inside Broadway, an arts education program that makes theater tickets available to public schools to recognize student achievement and sends actors, directors, musicians, and artists into classrooms to teach. As Managing Director, Paul supervised these residencies and observed many innovative approaches to incorporating the arts into curricular subjects.

In 1994 he began a master’s program at Columbia in American Studies while working full time. His 1999 master’s thesis considered the way the apartments built in Manhattan between 1947 and 1961 kept the city viable while other U.S. cities were hemorrhaging population. After receiving his degree he completed a second master’s at Columbia in a topic similarly related to urban history: the way Cincinnati department stores, through their promotions, displays, and branding activities, sold a vision of the city itself.

In 2004 Paul became a full-time graduate student at CUNY’s Graduate Center where a class in comparative slavery with James Oakes pushed his interests in a new direction. His dissertation, “Safe Distance: U.S. Slavery, Latin America, and American Culture, 1826-1861,” looks at the ways antebellum Americans used Latin America as a metaphor or surrogate that allowed them to discuss aspects of U.S. slavery they considered troubling or controversial. The dissertation was awarded the 2012 Zuckerman Prize by the McNeil Center of Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The manuscript is under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Before coming to Guttman, Paul taught as an adjunct at Lehman College and City College.

Mathematics has always been a passion of mine, yet I don't identify with being a human calculator. Surprised? To me math is about much more than numbers. It’s the excitement of problem solving combined with the beauty of proof. My main goal in teaching mathematics is to bring some of that beauty and functionality into the classroom. Regardless of one’s background in mathematics, I believe it is possible to see what has dazzled mathematicians for centuries.

Schools Attended:
PhD Columbia, MA Hunter College, BA Rutgers College

Research Interests:
Mathematics education, particularly expositions of advanced mathematics at the undergraduate and high school level.

Lynette M. Phillips, an attorney specializing in higher education law for more than 20 years, is Legal Counsel for Guttman Community College.
She also advises CUNY’s Graduate Center, Graduate School of Journalism, Macaulay Honors College and School for Professional Services.

Before joining CUNY, Ms. Phillips served as Vice President for Legal Services at Long Island University where she handled matters associated with daily and long term institutional operations, including risk management initiatives, governance, commercial transactions, human resource, student life and faculty matters, procurement, academic misconduct, fundraising, public safety, policy development and regulatory compliance.

She managed many of the same issues as Associate Counsel at SUNY Stony Brook, from 2002 to 2010.

Ms. Phillips began her legal career in Maryland, working for the State General Assembly and Department of Licensing, Regulation and Labor before joining DLA Piper, a leading business law firm. After transferring to Piper’s New York office with an advisory and litigation practice in employment, contracts and business torts, she joined the New York Attorney General’s Education Division. Ms. Phillips graduated from John Hopkins University with honors, and received her JD from the University of Maryland Francis Carey School of Law.

As an Admissions Coordinator, Keila assists prospective students with the Stella and Charles Guttman Community College’s unique admissions process. She facilitates Group Information Sessions and Individual Meetings and other enrollment events hosted by the college. Keila has been a member of the Stella and Charles Guttman community for over two years; since the school’s opening in summer 2012. Working as a Lead Peer Mentor of Admissions and Access, for the Office of Student Engagement and Success’ Peer Mentoring Program, she was able to develop mentoring relationships with prospective students as well as first and second year Guttman students. She encouraged students to find and harness their academic strengths while allowing them to develop awareness of their scholastic goals. In conjunction to mentoring students, Keila was also a coach to nine first year peer mentors; helping them discover and increase their mentoring skills.

Keila received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Hunter College- CUNY, where she is also obtaining her Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling.

Angie supports the daily activities, projects and special events of The New Community College. She was previously the coordinator and co-manager of public programs at the New-York Historical Society, where she developed and supervised evening lectures with notable historians, authors and public figures. She created and planned concert series and family programs for the Slavery in New York, New York Divided, French Founding Father: Lafayette's Return to Washington's America, and Grant and Lee in War and Peace exhibitions. Angie earned a bachelor’s in communication arts & sciences and sociology from DePauw University in Indiana and is currently taking graduate courses in psychology at Hunter College.

Nicole completed her doctorate in clinical social work at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. Her dissertation involves stress, burnout, compassion fatigue and the use of narrative interventions with oncology professionals. After completing her doctorate, she received advanced training in narrative medicine at Columbia University. Nicole directed the narrative oncology program and served on the interdisciplinary narrative professionalism committee at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on human behavior, communication, clinical practice and social research at UPenn and Temple University in Philadelphia. Nicole has experience in forensic psychiatry, child welfare and home health care. She worked in hospital social work at Penn Medicine on medical-surgical services, rehabilitation medicine and oncology. She serves as a peer reviewer on several health journals and has published and presented at conferences on narrative and health care topics.

Vera is responsible for ensuring that students at the college recieve the financial aid to which they are entitled. She will also provide financial literacy information to students. Vera has almost 30 years of financial aid experience at various New York City colleges. Most recently, she was the program compliance officer at CUNY’s Office of Student Financial Assistance. Prior to that, she was dean of student finance at DeVry Institute of Technology. She also served as financial aid director at LaGuardia Community College and Marymount Manhattan College. She has worked at Fordham University and at the U.S. Department of Education. Vera has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and media studies from Fordham and a master’s in counseling from Fordham’s Graduate School of Education.

Naveen holds a doctorate in economics and international business from New York University’s Stern School of Business. His dissertation focuses on international capital flows, and his research interests include international trade, finance and labor migration.

Naveen has taught business, economics and finance for undergraduate and graduate students and chaired departments of liberal arts and management at different institutions. He has also led efforts in curriculum and program development and program accreditation at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Before earning his doctorate, Naveen attended institutions of higher education in India and the United States, including Baruch College. He received numerous fellowships and awards during his undergraduate and graduate studies. He has published and presented papers on economics and finance, higher education learning outcomes, assessment, and program accreditation.

As the Director, Sophea manages overall recruitment and admissions processes at Guttman. She designs, executes and oversees a comprehensive student-centered recruitment strategy aligned with the College’s enrollment goals. In addition, she develops, implements and supervises on-and-off campus recruitment and enrollment activities, as well as facilitates a multi-step admissions process designed to help prospective students and their families understand the College’s educational model, and help them to make informed and intentional decisions as they begin their transition to higher education. Sophea also oversees pre-college programs.

Sophea has over a decade of experience in recruitment, enrollment management and student affairs, primarily focusing on providing access to higher education for underrepresented students by assisting them beyond their first steps of college planning. Recently, Sophea worked as the Academic Coordinator for the Arthur O. Eve Opportunity for Higher Education Program at The College at Brockport, State University of New York, where she also received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Administration. As the Academic Coordinator, she coordinated the academic components of the Summer Program and First Year Structured Program, oversaw the Peer Tutoring Program, and managed a caseload of undergraduate students to prepare them to obtain a baccalaureate degree by assisting with academic, financial, social, career advisement and support. Ms. So also worked as an Undergraduate Admissions Advisor at The College at Brockport, and as the Program Coordinator for the Training and Upgrading department with 1199SEIU Training and Employment Fund, she developed, implemented and evaluated adult education courses, continuing education programs and health related programs for 1199SEIU members in the Rochester region.

Marla A. Sole received her doctorate in Mathematics Education from New York University in 2010. She received an MS in Pure Mathematics from Syracuse University and a BS in Mathematics from SUNY Purchase. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at CUNY Guttman. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at the New School University. Dr. Sole has authored several articles in referred journals and her letters to editor have frequently appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She has published on a diverse range of topics including: charter vs. public schools, financial literacy, gender diversity in mathematics, intuitively understanding calculus, mathematical modeling, mathematics portfolios, school improvement, teacher expectations, the value of a college education, and statistical literacy.

Dr. Sole has taught a wide range of pure and applied mathematics courses, created online statistical modules as part of a National Science Foundation funded grant, developed a course in Quantitative Reasoning, and supervised a senior thesis in Mathematics Education. Dr. Sole is the recipient of awards for both research and teaching. She is also an elected member of two international honor societies: Pi Lambda Theta and Kappa Delta Pi.

Dr. Tyner-Mullings earned a doctorate in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center where she researched alternative educational models. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in deviance, statistics, sexuality and gender, and education as well as introductory courses. After finishing her doctorate, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University’s Teachers College in the sociology and education program and then an assistant professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

A former high school math teacher, Dr. Tyner-Mullings sits on assessment committees for two small high schools in New York City and has worked as a statistical or academic consultant for several colleges and universities. Her research interests include the sociology of education, communities, sports and cultural studies. Dr. Tyner-Mullings was hired to work at what is now Guttman in 2011 and had the opportunity to teach at Hostos Community College while working with other current and previous members of the Guttman community to create the school.

Since then, she has taught a variety of different courses in the school both within and outside of the first year experience. Her co-edited volume, Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform, published by IA Publishing, is a book of essays on small schools in New York City. Her second book, Writing for Emerging Sociologists published by Sage Publications, is a co-written sociological textbook on the types of writing needed to be a successful social scientist.

Her third book, Enter the Alternative School: Critical Answers to Questions in Urban Education, uses the critical small school, Central Park East Secondary School, as a case study to examine challenges in public education and the ways in which solutions might be approached. The book is currently available in paperback and is published by Paradigm Publishers.

Professor Lori Ungemah holds an Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University, in International Education Development with a concentration in Curriculum & Teaching. Prior to coming to Stella & Charles Guttman Community College, Lori worked as a middle and high school English teacher for the New York City Department of Education for 11 years where she held various positions such as Literacy Coach and Master Teacher. She has taught all levels of high school English as well as pre-service teacher training courses through the New York City Teaching Fellows and Pace University. Professor Ungemah is strongly committed to her teaching and to cultivating a classroom in which students construct their own knowledge.

While at Teachers College, Lori conducted a year-long qualitative research project on how teachers included or excluded a body of multiethnic students in their English classrooms based on their curriculum choices. She also conducted research on undocumented high school students and their transition to college. Currently, she is working on a project to define community college readiness and how to communicate this definition back to high school professionals in order to better prepare future community college students.

Professor Ungemah writes frequently about her work in the classroom on her blog readwriteteach.org and for other venues such as The Huffington Post.

Gia implements the technology to support the college’s adoption of CUNY's many computer systems. Gia brings 14 years of information technology experience. She was the senior systems developer at LaGuardia Community College, where she worked in information systems, software development, and database and Web technologies.

Gianina holds a bachelor’s degree from NY College of Technology, an enterprise systems developer certification and a technology trainer certification from Microsoft.

Gerry has over 15 years of financial and administrative management, technology project management and financial and performance auditing experience in the private and public sectors. He served as the chief financial officer of Sustainable South Bronx, Inc., the head of finance and administration of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and a senior auditor for the Office of the New York State Comptroller in the public sector. In the private sector, Gerry was responsible for various finance, budget, accounting and technology project management functions as a vice president of Merrill Lynch and Co., Inc.

Gerry teaches accounting, quantitative reasoning and business management courses as a faculty member of the business administration program at Guttman. Prior to joining the faculty at Guttman, Gerry taught entry- and advance-level accounting, finance and information systems courses to undergraduate and graduate students at Brooklyn College and Queens College.

Gerry holds graduate (M.Sc.) and undergraduate (B.A., cum laude) degrees in accounting from Queens College and is pursuing a Doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.) at the Fox School of Business (AACSB accredited) of Temple University. Gerry is also a C.P.A. Candidate.

His research interests include the effects of economic bubbles on income (in)equality, sustainability of economic self-sufficiency approaches in the context of federal affordable housing strategy, the determinants of dynamic organizational structures and the effects of board embeddedness on the audit quality of a firm.

Rebecca Walker received her Ph.D. in mathematics, with a concentration in teaching undergraduate mathematics, from Western Michigan University. Her current work is focused around student understanding of basic algebraic concepts and how that understanding impacts student success in algebra. She is also interested in assessment of student understanding of mathematics.

She is a member of the author team for the Core-Plus Mathematics Project High School Curriculum and of the Transition to College Mathematics and Statistics Textbook, which are published by Glencoe-McGraw Hill. As a member of the team Dr. Walker wrote all of the student assessment materials that accompany the textbooks and contributed to the homework sections in all of textbooks. She is also interested in how students navigate the transition from high school mathematics to college mathematics.

Prior to joining the faculty at Guttman Community College, Dr. Walker was an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. In addition to teaching math education classes, her work at GVSU included working with preservice teachers during their initial field placements. Dr. Walker has also taught high school mathematics in California and New Jersey.

Schools Attended:
Ph.D. 1999 Mathematics, Western Michigan University Field of Study: Undergraduate Mathematics Education Dissertation: "Students’ Conceptions of Mathematics and the Transition from a Standards-Based Reform Curriculum to College Mathematics" M.A. 1991 Mathematics, Montclair State College Field of Study: Mathematics Education 1985 University of California, Berkeley Certificate of Completion Field of Study: Single Subject Mathematics Teacher Certification B.A. 1982 William Smith College Major: Mathematics, summa cum laude New Jersey Secondary Math Certification California Single Subject teacher Certification, Mathematics

Research Interests:

High school mathematics curriculum development and implementation

Assessment of student understanding of mathematics and statistics

Student understanding of basic algebra concepts,
The transition of students from high school mathematics to college mathematics

Katie B Wilson, MA is an Instructor of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Program Coordinator for International Education at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College where she teaches Urban Community Health and Sociology and is developing the college’s burgeoning international education initiative.

Since 2000, Katie has taught biological and social science classes for grades K-college, both in the traditional classrooms and in innovative, experiential settings in Australia, Fiji, the Alps, the BVI's and Berlin, Germany. Her research interests include undergraduate public health curricular design, global learning, international education and civic engagement models.

Katie lives in Brooklyn where she is involved in food justice and yoga communities. She is originally from eastern Canada where she loves to hike, canoe, bike and cross-country ski.

As a member of the Admissions and Access team at Guttman Community College, Michael represents the college’s unique enrollment and educational model at both on-campus and off-campus recruitment and enrollment events throughout the five boroughs. He brings with him over thirteen years of experience working in Higher Education in both Academic Advisement and Admissions. Michael comes to us from the Direct Transfer and Recruitment office at New York City College of Technology where he worked with the transfer students, assisting them with their preliminary academic planning, financial aid, and residency in addition with prospective students in their admissions process. Prior to New York City College of Technology, he was an Academic Advisor at New York University where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Metropolitan Studies and Master’s Degree in School Counseling.